PicUntu 4.5 Brings Ubuntu 13.04 to RK3188 mini PCs

At the beginning of the year, PicUntu had been released for Rk3066 HDMI TV sticks, but as quad core devices based on RK3188 became popular, work started as soon as the source code was available, and a preliminary version of Linux ran on some RK3188 devices in June. After 4 more months of development an installer for PicUntu 4.5 has been released to allow users to run a customized version of Ubuntu 13.04 on RK3188 HDMI TV sticks or set-top boxes such as T428 or Rikomagic MK802 IV.

PicUntu 4.5 Screenshot (Click to Enlarge)

The installation procedure appears to be easier than earlier version, as there’s only one installer file (247 MB), and you can complete the installation to the NAND flash of your device with just 4 clicks.

PicUnutu runs xfce4 desktop environment, supports more than 200 drivers, multiple file systems (nfs, ntfs, cramfs, cifsutils, smb…), lots of different USB devices, serial devices, GPS devices, touchscreen. etc… WiFi is also supposed to work, but maybe for not all devices, unless you use a supported external USB dongle. However, hardware video acceleration, Bluetooth and some touchscreens do not work. However it’s still possible to play 720p videos smoothly using software video decoding.

Some important things to bear in mind is that this installation will completely wipe out your Android OS and existing files, you may void your warranty, and you may potentially brick your device, although the developers have yet to see it occur.

Brad Linder (Liliputing) has tried it on T518 mini PC, and found it to be as responsive as Ubuntu on Intel and AMD machines. Ditching Unity and replacing it by XFCE certainly helped here. He could not get WiFi to work, so testing was limited without Internet connection.

Now, how do I do a full backup incase I break my linux ? I have done this many times and don’t wan’t to start from scratch again everytime I screw up my FLASHED linux. Does this make sense?
Isn’t there a simple way to just do the reverse as the above instructions to do a backup ?

I personally have configured two machines now based on the RK3188 chip. This is the mini-PC stick T518. Since it was not so straightforeward to get in to flashmodus and get the correct bootloader and drivers. The results of my tinkering around you can find at: http://www.wili.nl/T518/Installation_T518_with_ubuntu.htm

@WilsonB Agreed that makes 2 of us that now are looking to backup our linux picuntu 4.5 installations so that we can recover after the installation is damaged and cannot boot again.My box i used is a K-R42 don’t know the motherboard model it’s just blue in color.
Any way i got ubuntu 13.10 on it by upgrading in a specific way only the way i state seems to work,look on freaktab my username used here PHYSC for details on that installalation procedure step by step guide.
The install has to be used in conjunction with picuntu 4.5 to get it up to 13.10 saucy salamander,so i’d like to thank you for making picuntu guys well done.
Surely you can reverse engineer the tool to backup the system or just give a few laymans terms hints to how we can accomplish a dump of segmented files for an android k-r42 or similar devices,or guidance in laymans terms on backing up a partition that could be made to force boot if necisary?
This would take a huge weight off mine and others shoulders and we will be eternaly greatfull for that as we already are for picuntu.